Hey look, atheists and agnostics are more knowledgeable about religion than theists....

From the Los Angeles Times

Atheists, agnostics most knowledgeable about religion, survey says

If you want to know about God, you might want to talk to an atheist. Heresy? Perhaps. But a survey that measured Americans' knowledge of religion found that atheists and agnostics knew more, on average, than followers of most major faiths. In fact, the gaps in knowledge among some of the faithful may give new meaning to the term "blind faith."

Now this surprises me not because I had an inkling that it was true but because I'm confused as to how some people can hold a belief so strongly and not truly understand the history of that belief or what exactly that belief truly means.

What do the rest of you make of this?

It's really interesting.

I do think many people on the road to atheism really search out faith in every form. When I was in that boat in my 20's I looked at a lot of beliefs attempting to find a fit....didn't happen though, so for a couple decades I forgot about God, faith and belief.

Many times a person of faith is raised that way and never go on the quest, so there is no research into different religions.

This makes sense to me.

I was born into a Christian family, but as I have matured I realized that I needed to find my own truths, too many things don't add up in the bible, and I can't condemn the rest of the world because they read a different book and follow a different tune.

After researching religions (which I still do). I am an agnostic. I do not deny a creator, but there is no one religion that has all the answers.

reply to post by madnessinmysoul
Madnessinmysoul,

For sure many Christians don't know much because they don't use the Word of God but listen to some preacher they hold in high esteem and to the creed of the church denomination they happened to grow up in or took up in and never have investigated to see if those things are true they are being led to believe. Church is NOT a building or a denomination, what constitutes church is the presence of the High and Holy One and that is more likely to be in little home churches or study groups. The True God flees most of the gatherings of what today is thought to be church services as Jn. 4:24 - God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth Notice "Must worship him in spirit and in truth". He is not being worshipped in spirit and truth in but a few places and so He is not present in the midst of them A case in point is - Mr 15:38 And the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom. God had given up on them and tore the veil in half when He tore out of the temple. It also reveiled the services of sacrifices was over with the sacrifice of the True Lamb once and for all ages in the past and to come. I will stop with this, Christians, read your Bible, the Truth, follow the truth and not man's theology. Man's theology is merely a structure of his own cobbling and is not church!

Hunt for and demand the Truth.


Truthiron

I think it's mainly because every time you tell someone your an atheist you have to spend 20 minutes justifying yourself and need the ammunition to do it with, so you have to know a decent amount about most religions.
Mostly if you tell someone your a Christian they just say.... "Ok then....." with no justifications needed

Religious people don't study religions, so they can keep on believing. For them there's only one truth, that of their leader. Atheists and agnostics on the other hand want to know everything about everything and thus they're more knowledgeable about all matters.

Atheists and agnostics -- those who believe there is no God or who aren't sure -- were more likely to answer the survey's questions correctly. Jews and Mormons ranked just below them in the survey's measurement of religious knowledge -- so close as to be statistically tied.

Before reading the article, I was going to strongly disagree with it, because most of the atheists I have met didn't seem to know much about religion. However, as a Mormon, I know a lot of Mormons, obviously, and while a lot of them do know quite a bit about religion (or at least their own) I've also met a lot that know pretty much nothing about it.

My theory is that a religion that requires a larger committment than an hour a week on Sunday is probably more likely to have adherents who are more knowledgable about it, since it influences their life more. This would explain why Jews and Mormons scored high, but not why atheists scored the highest on their survey.

Originally posted by DragonsDemesne
My theory is that a religion that requires a larger commitment than an hour a week on Sunday is probably more likely to have adherents who are more knowledgeable about it, since it influences their life more. This would explain why Jews and Mormons scored high, but not why atheists scored the highest on their survey.

Yep - as I was Mormon for about 5 years - - - it is definitely a 24/7 life style. Sure wish I could find an organization like it - - minus the fundamental paternal religion man has corrupted it into.

Many Atheists begin in a religion. As most of us in this country are "assimilated" into a god belief by parents or society.

Many of us need real information to back up a belief. In searching - - as I did - - the more I searched - - the more I discovered there is nothing tangible to support it. There isn't really even anything to have Faith in.

So Yes - - - many who become non-believers - - do so because they searched/studied and came up empty.

Originally posted by Annee
So Yes - - - many who become non-believers - - do so because they searched/studied and came up empty.

Not sure that's a fair assessment Annee.

People don't turn from faith because they study, they turn from faith because you can't find it by studding.

Originally posted by kinglizard

Originally posted by Annee
So Yes - - - many who become non-believers - - do so because they searched/studied and came up empty.

Not sure that's a fair assessment Annee.

People don't turn from faith because they study, they turn from faith because you can't find it by studding.

Many of us need real information to back up a belief. In searching - - as I did - - the more I searched - - the more I discovered there is nothing tangible to support it. There isn't really even anything to have Faith in.

So Yes - - - many who become non-believers - - do so because they searched/studied and came up empty.
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Why did you not quote the "bolded" (boldface) paragraph?

I know what Faith is.

No disrespect meant Annee. I hope you didn't take my post in that way.

Faith must always come first. It's not a product of reading it's a product of trust, humility and surrendering oneself to God, even if he hasn't appeared to you or made himself known in a human way.

If faith was a product of reading I would be a Buddhist, Catholic, Christian, atheist, agnostic...etc.

When you find faith you can then seek evidence because your eyes have been opened to it...not the other way around.

Originally posted by kinglizard
No disrespect meant Annee.

I hope you didn't take my post in that way.

Faith must always come first. It's not a product of reading it's a product of trust, humility and surrendering oneself to God, even if he hasn't appeared to you or made himself known in a human way.

If faith was a product of reading I would be a Buddhist, Catholic, Christian, atheist, agnostic...etc.

When you find faith you can then seek evidence because your eyes have been opened to it...not the other way around.

No harm - - its a discussion. Just felt you left an important part out of your response.

And NO - BIG NO - - - Faith must be based on something. Blind Faith is a major problem in religion - - or anything else for that matter.

Where is there Faith in Atheist?

Originally posted by Annee
And NO - BIG NO - - - Faith must be based on something.

I'm relieved you see this a a friendly conversation, for a moment I was worried you took offense.

Yes, it must be based on something...a feeling, that little voice inside your head. When you say to yourself, okay, I surrender, even though I'm not 100% sure, even though I have questions, I give myself to that feeling, to that voice I give myself. You say to yourself I know in time God will reveal the truth, through faith he will do this.....and then he will..

This makes perfect sense. An atheist or agnostic has usually only chosen to become that after studying religion and realising its flaws. A theist tends to only pay attention to the areas affirming their faith and blocks out the potentially destructive parts. I don't mean to offend theists with that statement it is just my opinion.

Originally posted by WeShallBeFree
A christian tends to only pay attention to the areas affirming their faith and blocks out the potentially destructive parts.

No offense taken, it's post like yours that allows us to share our faith.

Affirmation comes only after God reveals his truth through faith....doubt is part of human nature in the modern age, and yes it must be overcome with faith.

There's another component here: Most atheists and agnostics tend to be well educated.

Years ago there was a great concern among the self-identified "fundamentalist Christian" groups because research showed that if you sent your kid off to college or a university, they were very likely to become un-fundamental and even turn atheist or agnostic. Most blamed it on atheist professors with liberal-atheist agendas (and didn't take notice that the big sample size ALSO included religious colleges.) In fact, I became Pagan after attending a religious college.

I think that if they left out religious orientation, you'd find that the better educated have a better understanding of what all religions say.

This is true no matter what the religion. In areas where people are poor and uneducated, you find things like people burning someone for being a witch or stoning them for causing diseases or casting children out because someone said they were "sorcerers" and were bringing bad luck. Once people understand the true causes of disease, accidents (poor construction, bad combination of factors, etc), depression, and so forth, they no longer believe in the tribal religion and instead will choose something more in alignment with their understanding.

(btw, I got 14 of 15 on the test. I didn't know the name of the preacher in the last question.)

Originally posted by WeShallBeFree
This makes perfect sense. An atheist or agnostic has usually only chosen to become that after studying religion and realising its flaws. A theist tends to only pay attention to the areas affirming their faith and blocks out the potentially destructive parts. I don't mean to offend theists with that statement it is just my opinion.

True.

I say - - "the scribes that translated ancient text - - were mostly novice priests. They found God in ancient text because they believed in God and were looking for God".

When you are looking for God - you find God. When you are just looking - - for everything and anything - - you may find real facts - - and no God.

reply to post by Byrd


I remember hearing once about a survey done on people about whether they believed in God or not. There were three groups. One was high school grads, one was PhDs in science fields, and one was PhD in arts fields. The high school grads had the highest belief in God, though surprisingly the science PhDs were only a few points behind. The arts PhDs, however, were very unlikely to believe in God.

reply to post by DragonsDemesne


And then you can look at the National Academy of Sciences and it is mostly atheists. Something like 87%-95% atheists. It's not odd to see that atheists are more educated if they're more knowledgeable about religion.

Not surprising at all. Every time I ask a Christian to justify the morality in the Bible's "Story of Jepthah" the first response is "Ughhh, duuuuhhh, what's that?!". When I explain it's a story which shows the Abrahamic God sanctioning the human sacrifice of an innocent young girl, the rebuttal usually falls along the line of "Well, I've never read that story, all I know is God is good and God is great and he did it for a reason!". Yeah, good going, your God's a complete douche, and you don't even know the source material from which you're preaching.